North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood is concerned that Flintshire County Council is one of the few Councils in Wales failing to realise opportunities to reduce expenditure on leisure services and has raised the matter in the Assembly Chamber this week.
A Wales Audit Office Report has found that while Local Authorities across Wales have reduced how much they spend on leisure services by almost £18 million in the last five years, spending of Leisure Services in Flintshire has actually increased.
Raising the matter with the Public Services Minister, Leighton Andrews AM, Mr Isherwood said: “The Auditor General has stated that Local Authorities need to consider alternative models of delivery, but many councils, he said, are too slow in reviewing alternative methods of delivery and are missing out on opportunities to reduce expenditure.
“What action have you, therefore, taken subsequent to the Wales Audit Office Report in December on Delivering Less with Leisure Services, which found that some Councils were still too slow to realise opportunities to reduce expenditure? Eighteen of the 22 councils had seen reductions to their recreation and sport services gross revenue budgets, but four councils increased expenditure in this period, with the largest rises in Labour-led Local Authorities Caerphilly and Flintshire?”
The Minister replied: “We’ve been consulting on the action plan on alternative delivery models, and we will publish the final action plan shortly.”
Mr Isherwood added: “With Assembly business now ended until after May’s Welsh General Election and this Welsh Government in its final weeks, it’s a bit late to be publishing an action plan. Flintshire’s expenditure increase of 12.5% was the second largest rise, the largest being 21.4% in Caerphilly, yet Flintshire had the third biggest reduction in visitors participating in physical activity at sport and leisure centres amongst the 8 councils where there had been a fall.
“AS this Wales Audit Office Report states, whilst 18 councils have reduced how much they spend on leisure services, the biggest reductions have been achieved where councils change their model for delivering their major leisure facilities by transferring these facilities to Trusts. On average, councils transferring facilities to Trusts have made annual savings of £2.4 million.”